The volume of mail handled on a daily basis by carriers, as for example, the U.S. Postal Service, is such that automated handling and sorting equipment is employed whenever and wherever possible to facilitate the distribution of mail pieces. Mail pieces include letters, flats, irregular parcel pieces, and parcels which are delivered by individual mail carriers. Various automated sorting techniques, systems and methods for processing mail are well known. Presently automated sorting systems can sort mail pieces down to an individual mail carrier at a local post office, commonly referred to as carrier route sorting. However, no automated sorting system exists that would provide a sort producing delivery sequenced mail, i.e., mail arranged to a carrier walk sequence. The term mail carrier, as used herein, refers to the person who delivers mail to residences and businesses within a local (city or rural) area.
Database files containing carrier route identification based on nine digit zip codes, or ZIP+4, are used by the Postal Service in the automated carrier route sorting. The Postal Service makes the carrier route database files available to mailers, such as third class mailers. The mailers use the carrier route database files to print the mail pieces in a pre-sorted order according to carrier routes. The postal services in return provides a discount in postal rates for mailers delivering mail pieces in such a presorted order. Mail pieces sorted to a carrier route are in no particular order with regard to a carrier walk sequence.
Postal services use various sorting schemes and techniques. Presently in the United States, automated sorting down to a carrier walk sequence for a given carrier route does not exist for any kind or class of mail. The most recent automated system used by the U.S. Postal Service for receiving and sorting mail is a system utilizing an optical character reader/channel sorter (OCRCS). One of the functions normally performed by the OCRCS system is a primary sort based on the first two or three digits of a zip code. Another function of the OCRCS system is to extract information from the mail piece and print the information on the mail piece in machine readable form. The information typically extracted form a nine digit ZIP CODE, or ZIP+4. If the ZIP+4 is not printed on the mail piece, the OCRCS system can determine the ZIP+4 by recognizing the address printed on the mail piece and comparing the recognized address to information contained in a Zip Code database.
Once the ZIP+4 is determined the OCRCS system prints the ZIP+4 in bar code form on the mail piece. At the completion of the primary sorting, a secondary sort is performed on the mail pieces. Typically, the secondary sorting is done by a bar code sorter which reads and sorts by the ZIP+4 bar code printed by the OCRCS system. Based on the information contained in the ZIP+4, described below, the bar code sorter can sort to a carrier route level using the carrier route database files. Some mail pieces are rejected by the OCRCS system because the ZIP+4 cannot be determined, for example, mail pieces having handwritten addresses. Such mail pieces are handled by a multi position letter sorter machine, where operators enter information required for automated carrier route sorting.
The ZIP+4 provides information down to a carrier route level. The first five digits provide state, city and local post office identification. The +4 digits provide "block face" identification, i.e., sector and segment within a delivery area of a local post office. It can be appreciated that the ZIP+4 can be used to sort down to a mail carrier level using existing databases. It is understood that ZIP+4 does not contain enough information to allow a sort down to carrier walk sequence.
The final sorting of the mail pieces is to a carrier walk sequence. Generally, mail pieces delivered to a local post office for delivery to a final destination, have already been sorted to a carrier route level. Mail pieces within each carrier route grouped mail are in no particular order. The sorting to a carrier walk sequence is usually performed by an individual mail carrier and is always done manually. The manual sorting technique used by the mail carrier is commonly referred to as "casing" the mail. The mail carrier takes each mail piece sorted to the carrier's route, reads a mailing address on the mail piece and places the mail piece into a "case", which is a piece of equipment containing many pigeonholes, in an order consistent with the order of the delivery stops on the carrier's route. The manual task of casing the mail is labor intensive, typically requiring three to four hours per day for each carrier route. This can be as much as one half of a mail carrier's work day. It can be appreciated that this manual method of reading the mailing address on each mail piece and then hand sorting each mail piece to a carrier walk sequence is subject to errors.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system which would greatly improve the efficiency of sorting randomly ordered carrier route grouped mail pieces.
It is a further object of the present invention to reduce or eliminate the labor intensive hand sorting process by mail carriers at a local post office.
It is a another object of the present invention to shorten the time required to deliver mail by reducing the time required to process mail pieces in preparation for physical delivery and to avoid individual carrier handling errors while sorting in delivery order sequence.